Planned Giving

Currently retired and living her dream as an artist in Guatemala, Barbara “Barby” Hardaway recalls her days in Boston. “I contracted polio at age 3 in 1955, and I was lucky enough, as an African American child, to go to Cotting School where the Superintendent, Bill Carmichael, gave everyone an equal opportunity and did not tolerate racism or discrimination of any kind. That was certainly not the case in every Boston school or even throughout the U.S.A. at the time.

“My education at Cotting gave me the confidence and self-esteem to graduate from college and eventually to get a PhD. For twenty-eight years, I taught English at Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C. using American Sign Language, while simultaneously developing my interest in the theater and visual arts.

“I retired here to be near Guatemalan friends who consider me part of their family. I have always appreciated alone time and anonymity, and here I have both. But living in Guatemala has changed me. I am more aware of how wasteful a culture the United States is. People in the U.S. don’t think about the cost of their wastefulness and what happens to what they discard so freely. People in Guatemala live with less and they live on less. They do the best they can with what they have, and family is valued above all else.

“With the time retirement has afforded me, I have been able to develop my mixed medium collages and assemblages, experimenting with design elements, computer technology, and adhesive applications.

“Now that it’s been decades since I went to Cotting, I look back and realize, if I hadn’t gone to Cotting School, if that hadn’t happened, where would I be? What kind of life would I have had?

Cotting School provided an educational foundation that inspired me to take risks, celebrate my independence, and challenge social boundaries. Times have changed, but our right to excel in this world is the legacy of Cotting School.

“I received a great deal of support there and am forever grateful. I know my debt will never be paid in full because so much more was given that contributed to the quality of my life, time and time again. To say thank you, I have made plans to leave my estate to Cotting School to give future students the same opportunity I had.”

Music and dancing have always been an integral part of Lillian Towner Leary's life.  Every evening, her father would come home from work and grab Lillian, her sisters, or her mother, and start dancing around the kitchen.  Music, singing, and a lighthearted attitude toward life are firmly entrenched in her, despite personal setbacks that might have others singing the blues.

Lillian recalls with great fondness her son David's association with Cotting School.  "In 1955, my son David contracted polio at age sixteen months.  My husband, Frank, was a disabled World War II veteran and in and out of the hospital. I had two older daughters, and I had to work. David attended the public school for first grade, but the second grade teacher did not want to take responsibility for him."  She recalls feeling desperate.  Luckily, "Dr. Trott of Children's Hospital made an appointment for us with Dr. William Carmichael at 241 St. Botolph Street in Boston.  Along with academics, David was soon taking music, industrial arts, and gym classes.

"I always did David’s therapy with him, but I could never get him to go up and down stairs. The children of Cotting School taught him in about a month! Cotting taught him things that helped him later in life. It gave his dad and me peace of mind that we didn’t have before David attended Cotting School.

"Eventually we moved to Norwell and David graduated from the high school there. He worked pumping gas to save money for a secondhand car, which he used to commute to his first job at a bank in Brookline.  After that, he worked at Stone & Webster Engineering, and then with Floor Daniel, an international company. During his time with Floor Daniel, David helped build power plants in Michigan, Florida, and New Hampshire. As a Contract Administrator, he then built buildings all over the Midwest and West, finally landing in Dallas, which he loved, and where he died of cancer at age 43 in 1997.

"Cotting School taught him everything he needed to learn to be on his own.” She adds that David always credited Cotting School, as did she and Frank, for David’s ability to live independently.

Having that burden lifted from their shoulders gave her a lot to sing about.

Lillian has planned to leave a bequest from David to Cotting School upon her passing. With characteristic selfless modesty, she says, “Cotting saved my life. No one else would take him. David always wanted to give something back to the School, and it gives me great pleasure to be able to say thank you in this way."